The Changes That Come
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Emma celebrates another birthday. Het. For the A HREF "/myforums/Kat-Lee-formerly-Pirate-Turner/601834/" Legends of Cerebro/A forum.


Title: "The Changes That Come"  
Author: Kat Lee  
Rating: PG/K+  
Summary: Emma celebrates another birthday.  
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

She sat in her chair on another morning she'd thought she'd never see, applying her makeup and trying not to think about all that had brought her to this point in her life. She painted her lips and brushed colored dust onto her eyelids. She gazed in the mirror, which she had at, alternate times in her life, both loved and hated looking upon, and finally allowed herself to consider the woman before her.

She was getting old. It was a frightening concept, but at the same time, in its own way, an exhilarating one. She'd never thought she'd seen this day, but then, the woman she'd been at that time was no longer the woman she was. The other woman was long buried; Sean and their students had finished her.

Emma shut her makeup case and pushed away from her dresser. Again, though, her blue eyes caught and held on the reflected orbs in her mirror. If she'd been asked then, if she would have made it to this day, she would have said she doubted it or it didn't matter, but if they had pushed, she might have been honest. She might have said that, if she did, she wanted Generation X to be all around her on this momentous occasion.

Yet, that had been another heartache in her life, yet another change that had destroyed her and left her having to rebuild not just herself but her whole world. Sean, rest her soul, hated her, and so did her students from that time. Emma glanced to a photo of her current team. Her first students were dead because of her, her second students hated her so much that they wished she had been the one Adrienne had killed. Emma smirked at her own self and how many times she'd ached for that very thing.

But Adrienne hadn't killed her. She had killed Everett and, in so doing, had sealed her fate as well as Emma's and Generation X's. She wouldn't let any one kill another of her students and live. She hoped she wouldn't have to make that decision again with her current batch of students, but she knew the day would come eventually. It always came. It was her students or the world, her sanity, her safe keeping, or theirs, and the answer she would always choose would be to put her students before herself.

She was standing and trying to push aside the thoughts that haunted her every day of her life and not just on her birthdays when the door to the bedroom she shared with the X-Men's leader was pushed open. "Yes," Scott answered the question she'd never asked him as he entered.

Her eyes once more raised to the mirror, but they couldn't lock with his eyes for his ruby quartz glasses that stood in their way. "Yes what?"

His smile was thin and somewhat sad. "Yes, Emma, I'll stand beside you," he elaborated. "Whatever happens, whatever _we_ have to do to protect tomorrow's mutants, I will stand beside you. I'll never turn my back on you like they did." She felt his sorrow and remorse, his aching sympathy for her, through their telepathic bond as he moved closer into their bedroom and to her. "I can't always protect you," he spoke truthfully. "I can't guarantee the others will never hurt you. But I'll always stand beside you."

Part of her wanted to accuse him of lying and throw him from their room, from _her_ territory. Part of her wanted to ask him what he would do if Jean returned and tried to kill her. But they'd already been down that road. He'd already proven to her that he loved her and that Jean was his past whereas Emma was his future. He'd already chosen her over Jean.

"That's right," Scott affirmed, moving closer still. "I did choose you over Jean, Emma, and I will again if she returns again. I know you don't like to hear this," he continued, raising a hand and gently clasping the side of her white and fragile neck, "but I love you, Emma."

She did like to hear it. She liked to hear those words because, if she was truthful with herself as she was being now, it was thrilling to know that some one actually did love her. Despite all her flaws, all her faults, all her wrong doings and mistakes in the past, despite all the deaths that had happened because of her, somebody still did love her.

"And I'll still love you," he promised, running his fingers delicately through her hair that she was finally allowing to grow, "even when all your beautiful, blonde hair turns gray."

"I'll never let that happen," she vowed, making a face.

"I want it to happen," he returned solemnly, cupping her face in his hands and stroking her tenderly. "I want us to grow old together, Emma. I want to love you forever, and I want to bring the new mutant generation into a world that we forge for them, a world where they can finally be safe. And I want you to be happy. This is your day, your generation, your life."

"Scott . . . " She spoke his name but then decided against using any of the endless cliches, like telling him to shut up the sentimental mess and kiss her. "We will," she vowed instead, and she kissed him, letting him know through the passionate use of her lips and the toying of her tongue against his and inside his mouth, that she actually did like to be reminded that some one cared, some one would still be there with her, beside her no matter what came. Neither of them could imagine, however, what changes would yet come to their world both to bring them closer than ever before and, in the end, to push away from Emma the last, and only, person to truly love her too.

**The End**


End file.
